Listen To the Contrarians and Buy Gold Coins

Over the last decade, there was only one group of people telling investors to buy gold coins. The trouble was, they weren’t just telling people. They were screaming at anyone who would listen that gold coins were one of the only acceptable investment options in an era of change and uncertainty. Regular stock advisors and commission based brokers wrote these screamers off as nut-job contrarians, and encouraged people to put their retirement nest eggs in stocks.

Now that the decade is over, it’s clear who is having the last laugh here. The contrarians have emerged as the winners, while stock advisors have egg all over their faces. The last ten years of the stock market are being dubbed “The Decade of No Returns” while buying US gold coins is being hailed as the “Trade of the Decade.”

Of course, that was the last ten years.What will the years ahead hold? Let’s look at the fundamentals.

Contrarians were encouraging people to buy gold based on a few clear criteria. They pointed out that in times of economic uncertainty, gold coins represented an asset class that tends to appreciate dramatically. They were right—gold moved from under $300 an ounce at the beginning of the decade to over $1,100 by the end. As the economic situation has not improved dramatically, it is reasonable to believe the link would still hold true, meaning that gold will continue to rise as the economy continues to falter.

Next, contrarians pointed out that gold coins go up in value as fiat—which is to say, paper—currencies are devalued. This also held true.As the US government pumped money into the markets and devalued the paper dollar, gold coins increased in value. Since the government has promised to continue priming the pumps, it is reasonable to continue to invest in gold.

Finally, contrarians pointed out that P/E ratios on the stock market were blown up far past the historical averages, and thus stocks were headed for a fall.Again, they were right. Gold went up and stocks fell—dramatically.Since stocks have still not reached their historical average P/E ratios, it is reasonable to assume that they will continue flat or downward while gold will continue to rise.

All in all, it seems that the screaming contrarians are still as right as they ever were. Thus, it is time to turn away from regular advisors.Listen to the contrarians, buy gold coins, and reap the benefits for yourself.

 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

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